Latest KFF Health News Stories
States Offer Mixed Legislative Bag On Abortion, Birth Control
Birth control and abortion legislation are making the rounds at state capitols. An abortion bill in Georgia was stopped Tuesday while Idaho backed away from its own pre-abortion ultrasound bill. Missouri advanced a bill to let some employers opt-out of providing coverage for contraception.
As the court heads into the final day of arguments on the health law, commentators review the arguments on the individual mandate and look forward to those about Medicaid expansion.
“More than 80 retired top military leaders are calling on Congress to support a strong and effective International Affairs Budget and reiterating how critical this funding is to our national security in a letter [.pdf] released by the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s (USGLC) National Security Advisory Council (NSAC),” according to a USGLC press release. “The FY 2013 House Budget Resolution being debated this week represents a 11 percent cut to the International Affairs Budget from current year funding, and Members of Congress should heed the advice of our most respected men and women in uniform on why this funding is so important to our national security,” the press release states (Parker, 3/27).
Recognizing The Importance Of Working Together To Make An Impact On Global Issues
In this post in the Huffington Post’s “Global Motherhood” blog, Robin Smalley, co-founder and international director of mothers2mothers, discusses how partnerships and access to a supportive network of individuals has helped mothers2mothers expand their efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS. She notes that an invitation in 2008 to the Skoll World Forum (SWF) on social entrepreneurship, held in Oxford, provided the organization “entree to a new family, one made up of extraordinary individuals running organizations impacting issues ranging from global health to social justice to the environment.” The conference, underway this week, “is a world dedicated to possibilities, where everyone unites to brainstorm ways we can make our planet a little bit better,” she writes.
CDC Director Provides Update On AIDS Epidemic In Anticipation Of AIDS 2012 Conference
In anticipation of the AIDS 2012 conference, to be held in Washington, D.C., from July 22-27, CDC Director Thomas Frieden spoke at the Washington-based Center for Strategic & International Studies, where he provided an update on the epidemic in the U.S. and abroad, VOA News reports. Frieden provided statistics on HIV infection and death rates; recounted “trying to treat hundreds of patients in the early days of the epidemic,” before treatment was available; and said that “around the world, … HIV/AIDS remains the biggest infectious disease challenge more than 30 years into the epidemic,” the news service writes.
UNAIDS, NEPAD Sign MoU To Collaborate In Efforts To Fight HIV
UNAIDS and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency on Tuesday “signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) calling for strategic collaboration to advance sustainable responses to HIV, health and development across the African continent,” according to a UNAIDS press release. “Under the terms of the agreement, UNAIDS and the NEPAD Agency will work with partners to: support the development of common African positions for the AIDS response, with an emphasis on sustainable financing; address constraints in access to HIV medicines; facilitate policies and partnerships to eliminate new HIV infections in children and improve the health of mothers; enhance country ownership and accountability; and encourage South-South cooperation,” the press release states (3/27).
Malaria Funding Has Helped Prevent Nearly 1M Child Deaths Over Past Decade, Study Finds
The results of a study (.pdf) published in Malaria Journal “suggest that funding for malaria prevention in Africa over the past decade has had a substantial impact on decreasing child deaths due to malaria,” according to the study’s abstract. Between 2001 and 2011, malaria prevention intervention scale-up helped prevent an estimated 842,800 malaria-related child deaths, an 8.2 percent decrease over the period had malaria intervention remained unchanged since 2000. The researchers note that 99 percent of the decline can be attributed to the use of insecticide-treated bednets. “Rapidly achieving and then maintaining universal coverage of these interventions should be an urgent priority for malaria control programs in the future,” the study concludes (Eisele et al., 3/28).
Global Fund’s General Manager Discusses Future Direction, Achievement of Fund In Interview
Gabriel Jaramillo, general manager of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, “has given an interview [.pdf] with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, in which he outlines the direction and achievements to-date in making the Global Fund a more efficient and successful organization,” according to a Global Fund press release. In the interview, Jaramillo “also stresses the importance of continuing the work of the Global Fund in saving lives through greatly improving the grant management processes and strengthening this function inside the organization,” the press release states (3/28).
Ethiopia’s Workplace HIV/AIDS Policy Aims To Help Employers, Employees Nationwide
Ethiopia’s new HIV/AIDS workplace policy, instituted in January by the government in cooperation with the country’s main employees’ and employers’ associations, “is expected to protect job seekers from mandatory HIV tests, while facilitating voluntary counseling and testing and defending the right of employees living with HIV to medical leave or job re-allocation,” PlusNews reports. The policy “provides guidelines for the establishment of an AIDS fund to help employees cope with living with the virus” and “stipulates that employers will make the necessary investments to ensure universal precautions in workplaces to protect employees from HIV infection, and … put in place a post-exposure prophylaxis system for their workforce,” the news service writes. Tadele Yimer, president of the Ethiopian Employers Federation, said, “What we hope [the new policy] will do is bring about an agreed consent and uniform approach among employers to fight HIV/AIDS nationally,” according to PlusNews (3/26).
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including recaps of yesterday’s Supreme Court action related to the constitutionality of the individual mandate, and scene setters for day 3 of the oral arguments, which will tackle issues of severalbility and questions about the health law’s Medicaid expansion.
Conservative Justices Appear Skeptical Of Health Law’s Insurance Mandate
In today’s oral arguments, the individual mandate was the focus of a barrage of tough questions. Kaiser Health News tracked the afternoon’s media coverage of the session.
If It’s Tuesday, It’s The Individual Mandate
In the second day of oral arguments, the Supreme Court will hear extended arguments on whether the federal government can require people to buy health insurance or face a penalty. Known as the “individual mandate,” this provision, which is viewed as the “heart” of the health law, is steeped in politics.
High Court Unlikely To Push Health Law Ruling Into The Future
Based on justices questions’ during the opening day of oral arguments in the challenges to the health law, it appears the court was receptive to arguments by both the federal government and the measure’s opponents that the case should be decided now rather than waiting until after the individual mandate’s penalties for not having health insurance have kicked in.
What Individual Mandate, Other Health Law Rulings May Mean For Americans
News outlets analyze arguments around the individual mandate and what a ruling by the Supreme Court will mean for most Americans. Kaiser Health News looks at changes in the health care industry as a result of the law, and how most of those shifts will continue regardless of what the Court decides.
Insecurity Threatening Success Of West, Central African Mass Polio Vaccination Campaign
Instability and insecurity in some West and Central African nations are threatening the success of a 20-country polio vaccination campaign, which aims to immunize 111.1 million children against the disease, IRIN reports. Ongoing insurgent attacks threaten the campaign in Nigeria, the region’s only polio-endemic country and home to 57.7 million of the children targeted, the news service notes. Parts of Mali, Niger, and Chad also pose security problems for health care workers trying to access children in remote or disputed areas, according to IRIN. “Human error and weak health systems also play an important role in sub-optimal immunization reach,” the news service writes, noting so far, “only Ghana, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Gambia, and Togo have achieved the required 90 percent coverage, according to UNICEF” (3/23).
South African Mines Must Have HIV, TB, Workplace Safety Policies To Receive License, Minister Says
Speaking at an event where South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe urged the mining industry to take greater steps to address tuberculosis (TB) and HIV among its employees, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu “announced that mining companies, whose HIV, TB and workplace safety policies are being audited by her department, will have to submit their policies as a prerequisite for renewing their mining licenses,” PlusNews reports. “According to Shabangu, South Africa’s mining sector sees three times as many cases of active TB as the general population,” the news service writes.
As Court Brings Health Overhaul Into Focus, Politicians Pounce
Santorum picks up his criticism of Romney’s efforts in Massachusetts, which set up mandatory health coverage, but the former Massachusetts’ governor continues to assail the federal plan.
Demonstrators Provide Punctuation, Personality To Ongoing Debate
Though events inside the Supreme Court were staid and steeped in the high court’s rules and processes, outside activists converged to argue their positions and to shape public opinion about the health law.
Scott Brown Turns To Olympia Snowe For Help In Appealing To Women Voters
The Massachusetts senator, who has riled some women’s groups for his stand on the Obama administration’s contraception coverage policy, is seeking to raise the profile of women in his campaign.
Study: Insurance Loss Or Acquisition Means More ER Visits
News outlets report on findings published in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
